One of my favorite movie quotes is from Harold and Maude,
where Harold says "you sure have a way with people", and Maude
replies "Well, they're my species!". This is about how I feel about
it. All my greatest joy in life comes from connection with other
people. This can mean anything from the mental connection of trying
to outwit each other over a board game, to the awareness of each
other's body and how they move together in the connection of
partner
dance, to the emotional connection of the conversation at one
in the morning where we trust each enough to remove our filters and
speak the truth without first thinking whether it's what we want
each other to hear, to an intimate physical connection. This is
what makes me feel happy and alive, and finding more like-minded
people to connect with in any of these ways is why I'm on
OKCupid.

One thing I should mention right away is that I'm polyamorous, and
am in a long-term primary relationship that I'm very happy with. So
if you're looking for someone to marry and have children with, I'm
not your guy. But I'm open to anything from friendship (new friends
are always a good thing) to a long-term committed secondary
relationship.
I am open, honest, passionate, and playful.

I love my hobbies, and spend much of my free time either dancing or
playing games. Right now "playing games" means mostly board games, and
"dancing" means
mostly ballroom
and square
dancing, but I rotate through serial obsessions, so in a year,
"games" might mean poker, and "dancing" might be Lindy and Argentine Tango. The
lead-follow connection of partner dance is a really fun and special
way to connect with someone. And games make my brain hurt in a good
way, and the community of people who like to make their brain hurt
that way seem to be good friends for me.

Open, honest, communication.
Connecting with my partner in dance.
Playing games (by which I mean not that I win a lot, but that I'm
good at the important thing, which is playing in a way that means I
and my opponents have a good time).
Math, logic, and analytical skills.

Movies: Shakepeare in Love, The Housesitter, Roxanne, Wings of
Desire, Casablanca, Duck Soup, Wall-E, The King's Speech, Real
Genius, Witness for the Prosecution, Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind, 12 Monkeys.
Books: The Princess Bride (the movie is great, but the book is even
better!), Sometimes a Great Notion, Goedel, Escher, Bach, Guns,
Germs, and Steel, How the Mind Works, Consciousness Explained,
Harry Potter, Tales of the City
Shows: Company, Sweeney Todd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum, Death of a Salesman, The Iceman Cometh
Music:
I used to listen mostly to classical music. Now I seem to see music
mostly through the lens of dance, so what I like best is whatever
is most fun to dance to in whatever style of dance I'm enjoying
most.

Friendship.
I tried to increase the list to six, but every time I did (assuming
I left out the boring stuff like air---I mean, what do you learn
from someone telling you on their OKCupid profile that they
couldn't do without air?), friendship seemed so much more important
than the other things on the list that it seemed more honest to
ignore the demand to pad the list to 6 things.

Recently, about what the six things I could never do without are,
and what lists like this do or don't tell you about a person.
I've also been thinking a lot about the process of making
decisions, both consciously and unconsciously, and when and how
people are rational and irrational in their decision making.